


Sleeping beauty

by I_am_sorry



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alpha Males, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Law Enforcement, Alternate Universe - Prostitution, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Feelings, M/M, Military, Military Backstory, Murder Mystery, Porn with Feelings, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Soul Bond, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-07-11 22:21:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15981710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_am_sorry/pseuds/I_am_sorry
Summary: Landon Harrison doesn't believe in coincidences, half-truths, good intentions that never amount to actions or in humanity as a whole. And in retrospective that might not be so bad, as it has kept him alive in his line of work. You can never be too careful when working as a special detective for murder, after all.But when a series of strange killings start happening, he may have to start thinking of changing his beliefs or risking more victims. It's a delicate case and Landon can't afford distractions, especially not a cynical gray eyed man, and yet he can't seem to stay away.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AI: artificial intelligence

 

                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                        Year 3075, central city.

.

.

 

 

Landon sighed while looking at the crumpled body behind the trash container; the rain falling heavily over him made it almost impossible to distinguish most of the crime scene. It had to be his luck, honestly, for this to happen on his free day.

Landon opened the intercom loaded in his wrist clock, hoping to make an early call, and get a team quickly so he could go home –seeing as his previous plan to get a body to warm him up for the night had failed… spectacularly.

“Access code?” the operator of the line asked.

“09h93, special agent Harrison,” Landon answered patiently.

“State your emergency,”

“A body, probably homicide, district 4, just around the corner of Arabian nights, the pleasure palace,” Landon spoke calmly.

“Roger,” the operator said. “Stay there, agent Harrison, a team is going your way.”

The team arrived just as the rain started to clear, and for once Landon hoped for his work to end quickly. It’s true he loved his work, and sometimes even his boss complained about him overworking himself to death, but truth was –this night, he wasn’t happy, and he was not in the mood to deal with a murder.

Landon had had a bad night, starting with the little mistake of a mixed dinner, and ending with the fucking big fault of a cancelled service with the pleasure palace. An AI whore had canceled on him last moment because, he felt indisposed.

Landon had booked the service a month ago, hoping to not feel so alone once his free day rolled around, and yet that was just what had happened.

“How long have you been here?” Junior agent Tamara, asked.

Landon shrugged. “Some minutes,”

She smiled slyly, nodding towards _Arabian Nights._ “How was your night?”

“Fucking awful,” Landon scowled.

Tamara stared at him wide eyed, “I am sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, let’s get it done.” Landon told her, handing her a pair of latex gloves.

They didn’t say anything else after that.

The victim turned out to be female, human, and underage. Sexually assaulted, and probably by her flimsy clothes, a worker of the pleasure fraction. Her lips had turned a weird glowing green, as had her open unseeing eyes.

“Poison? Maybe drugs?” Tamara asked, while her team took pictures and grabbed the few pieces of evidence that hadn’t been washed away by the rain.

“Most likely drugs,” Landon told her seeing as the victim didn’t have signs of physical violence, or asphyxiation.

“Suicide after getting raped?” Tamara questioned him, while twirling a straight curl out of her made up hair -a nervous habit- constantly.

“No,” Landon exhaled. “There’s intent of at least partially hiding the body, maybe an accident, something could have gone wrong with a client.”

Tamara jiggled her head thoughtfully. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Anyway, Intel will let us know,” Landon scratched the back of his neck wearily. “It’s been a long night Tam, I’m going home.”

Tamara regarded him with sympathy. “Yeah, I’ll take it from here. You go home and have a good rest.”

\---

“I am sorry your arrangement with me was cancelled,” a whiny voice told him, following him around as he looked inside _Arabian Nights_ , for a supposed suspect. “But, a client from district two came and asked for me and I couldn’t very well say no, all that money… you understand it? Right? I mean, I love you but you could never pay me that much.”

Landon narrowed his eyes, starting to feel slightly irritated with the boy trailing behind him speaking nonsense.

“Landon,” Miranda, the boy with the annoying personality, Landon had taken a like some months ago kept calling at him. “Awww, don’t be like that, I’ll even make you a deduction.”

Landon tried to breathe deep, to get some of his lost patience back. “I already told you, I am working,”

Miranda huffed. “That’s a lie and we both know it. You only come here for one reason, and it’s seems you tired of me already,”

“Working,” Landon replied again, as he kept walking inside the long halls of _Arabian nights._

Miranda rolled his eyes, “Rony warned me about you, as did Lou, and Harry and Luka. All of them heartbroken after you left them.”

All of them pampered, self-centered workers of the pleasure palace; Well yes, Landon had a type, lithe (of legal age) AI boys, effeminate with porcelain skin and doll like face.

Landon stopped finally when he found the door he had been searching. “Dimytri Sokolov?” He asked to Miranda, nodding towards the white unipersonal door.

“Why would you want Dimytri?” Miranda inquired incredulous. “He is nothing at all your type.”

“He might be an important witness in a case,” Landon countered back calmly.

It had turned out, the girl behind the trash can had been indeed a murder, a type II in premeditation –and Dimytri Sokolov had been her only friend in this place, and the only one who had spoken with her the day before her death.

“Yes, that’s his door.” Miranda said moodily, turning around and finally leaving him alone.

Landon knocked once, feeling slightly better at being left all by himself, but no one answered. It may well be that this would be one of the times, when he would need a warrant.

Landon lifted his hand and pounded de door again in a last effort –suspecting it was futile anyway.

And just when he started to turn, thinking it was time to go back to the station and follow another thread of evidences, the door finally opened.

“Dimytri Sokolov?” Landon asked, seeing how the man leaned on the frame of the door.

“Yes,” Dimytri answered, playing with the barbell piercing on his lower lip.

Landon took a minute to study the man in front of him, before saying anything. Dimytri Sokolov was tall, slightly taller than Landon; he had wide shoulders and narrow hips, platinum blonde straight hair, pale skin and silver eyes. He looked like he would last in a hand to hand combat, and wouldn’t be afraid to get dirty, would probably even win. There was something about him…

An inner wildness maybe, hidden by a sophisticated aura, and decadent clothing.

And just for a moment there, while seeing his suspect Landon thought he felt like he did when he stared in a mirror. Same height, same weight, same everything that mattered aside from Landon’s color of hair and eyes.

“I don’t have all day, Mr. Policeman,” Dimytri drawled.

“I need at least an hour,”

Dimytri looked him up and down, his mouth curled in a parody of a smile. “Heard Miranda bitching about you not wanting him anymore, I will give you the first try free and if you like it you can come back and we discus my rates,”

Landon snorted. “Yeah, but you are not my type and I’m working.”

Dimytri shrugged. “But it’s free, a discount I give all my clients, and you can come back at night.”

Landon tilted his head. “I don’t let anyone fuck me.”

“I do whatever my clients want,” Dimytri said dispassionately. “You can fuck me if that’s what you prefer.”

Landon grinned. “You don’t look like type to take it up in the ass, lying down.”

“But I do.” Dimytri answered shrewdly, playing with his barbell again.

“I’ll think about it,” Landon said.

“So Mr. Policeman,” Dimytri turned back inside his room, leaving the path free for Landon to follow him inside. “What do you want to know?”

“Arabella Santizo,” Landon said taking out his tablet note. “Did you know her?”

“Yeah,”

Well it seemed like Landon had plenty of work ahead, and this was only the beginning. He grabbed a chair, sat down and started asking the pertinent questions.

It would be a long day.

\---

“How was your interview with the suspect?” Tamara asked; nodding her head in thanks for the cup of coffee Landon was offering her.

“I don’t think he killed her,” Dimytri had been hiding something but Landon’s predisposition for this kind of things told him; it wasn’t related with Arabella’s death. Aside from that he had checked the man’s alibi with a couple that had rented him for the night and they had told him it was the truth. “He was fond of her but they weren’t sleeping together. She worked in Arabian Nights most days, specialized only in getting just older men interested in her.”

Tamara blew away the steam of her cup. “The one that killed her could have been someone important then,”

“Yes,”

“What else?”

Landon grabbed a chair close to her desk, and sat down. “She had no family and Dimytri Sokolov was the last one to see her alive before she went away with a client,”

“And I don’t suppose your suspect knew who the client was?” Tamara asked hopeful.

Landon snorted. “If only it were that easy.”

Tamara sighed.

“Still no word from Medical?” Landon probed as he drank scalding coffee from his own cheap cup.

Tamara shook her head. They were only working in this case together because she was a newbie, and needed guidance –or that was what the boss had said to him, when he had asked if Tamara would be his permanent partner now.

Special agents weren’t used to being alone. Seventy five percent worked in pairs, got a match in the academy and formed a bond, a neurological bond that lasted through a life time if they were lucky. Or sometimes like Tamara you didn’t get a match, which meant you weren’t compatible with anyone.

Or in worse cases, you got a match and a bond, and your partner was killed in active duty, leaving a void inside your head only filled with static noise. Landon hadn’t thought about Mel in years, but seeing Tamara working with him in this case, with cheap cups of coffee, and papers scattered around them in disorder this late at night brought back memories.

Old memories.

“The client didn’t want to pay and got rough with her?” Tamara inquired, chewing on her pen.

“The client doped her so he wouldn’t have to pay but miscalculated and killed her, or the most likely the client didn't want her to talk  to someone about something,”

Tamara nodded accepting his theory. “Landon?”

Landon turned towards her, distractedly as he kept scanning his virtual notebook for info on new drugs circling the black market.

“How long have you been with the force?”

“Eight years,” Landon answered, reading the hologram-screen that had found him much info on new illegal drugs but nothing relevant to their case, there wasn’t any info on a drug that left behind a fluorescent green trail.

“Alone?” She asked quietly.

Landon paused and regarded her fully. His story was not a secret, but it neither was something he felt relaxed speaking about. He sighed. “I had a partner once. They found me a match in my last year of the academy; we formed a bond, only level one, the most basic of the bonds… he was a good man, died on duty some months after we graduated.”

“And you have been alone since then,” Tamara alleged sadly. “Seven years is a long time to be without your soul mate.”

“Mel wasn’t my soul mate, we had the weakest form of bond, and we never were involved. Still that doesn’t mean I don’t miss him sometimes,”

The soul mate concept between bonds some of the egressed out of the academy had adopted was something Landon didn’t agree with, his bond with Mel had been frail, and he hadn’t really felt attracted to him but Tamara seemed to give it real importance. “You don’t need a machine to tell you to have an important bond, Tam, to get a soulmate you just need to meet someone and fall in love.”

Tamara smiled weakly. “You are a good man, Landon Harrison. A true romantic at heart.”

Landon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I go to the Pleasure Palace hoping to find true love, every time.”

Tamara giggled. “You never know.”

.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Um don't know if there are people reading this note but if you are... Thank you for taking the time!
> 
> This is another Original Work of mine that well, it was born out of my enjoyment of two alpha, military-like men getting together/falling in love. And of my enjoyment of mystery as well.
> 
> I could even say I always wanted to try writing something like this but never dared because I thought I would butcher it - buuuut life is funny and well... In the end... Why not? 
> 
> I have five chapters of this story written already so I will update every week. 
> 
> It means a lot to me to hear your thoughts. Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating R for this chapter.

Medical hadn't been concise with their information about the victim; they didn't know what had been the cause of the girl's death yet, hadn't been able to determinate if the strange glowing green was from drugs or a poison, or if she had drunk, inhaled or injected something aside from whatever that had caused her death.

"It will take some time," Liam told him sincerely. "It's a particular case, and the victim wasn't wealthy, well known, or connected to someone important,"

Landon stared at him, distaste curling his features. "It doesn't matter who she was or what she did for a living, she deserves peace and closure."

Liam scrunched up his nose, huffing. "You have to always be the hero, don't you darling?"

"I can't believe I am even having this conversation with you,"

Liam eyebrows reached his hairline. "Of course you are having this conversation with me; I am one of your main analysts."

"You are just a moody, ill-tempered brat," Landon spat.

"And your boss," Liam added.

"You are not my boss," Landon rolled his eyes.

"As long as my mother isn't here, I am," Liam stated, eyes sparkling.

Liam Conrad, was a petulant mama's boy of twenty years of age that had graduated in Neuro-tech two years ago. He had been catalogued as a genius by the university he had been in and had been assigned to Landon's station, thanks to Julia Conrad -Landon's boss and the Director of the Crime-Station of district four.

"Then boss," he said with exasperation. "Start working and get this murder solved,"

Liam growled something under his breath that sounded like 'Stupid handsome bastard.' but didn't complain about anything else as Landon left.

Landon shook his head and walked straight out of Liam's office towards the station bathrooms. He splashed some water on his face, and looked at his reflection on the mirror. Light blue eyes -turquoise maybe- and untamed curls of dark-brown hair that he kept strict short per academy regulations; high cheekbones and a strong jaw.

The truth was Landon didn't see anything special when he looked at himself on the mirror, but many people since he had been young, told him he was really pretty, beautiful or handsome. Mel had even joked about that once, saying Landon should be the face of the academy -that way cops would become popular.

Landon didn’t agree but then again what could he know of what he looked like to other people?

Landon shook his head, and scratched his short spikes of hair a bit. He needed to go home, and eat something, before coming back here to keep working on his case. He wouldn’t be so on edge if he did and maybe then he could even charm Liam enough to get him to cooperate.

Landon breathed deep. It was late, and he was going home for the day.

It was for the best.

He slept fretfully that night, and the following ones –with the case in stand by and Julia still on medical-leave, he was more bad-tempered than ever. Liam didn’t help either; he wanted to strangle the kid by the end of the week.

“You need to relax,” Liam said diplomatically after Landon had screamed at him for at least forty minutes straight. “You need someone to relax you…”

Liam opened his mouth, getting ready to make an offer but was cut short swiftly-

"I wouldn't touch you even if you were the last man standing on earth, not even if you became an AI."

Liam spluttered.

Although Landon thought the kid was right, he didn't let him know. He chuckled as he left the brat's office; maybe a visit to the Pleasure Palace would do him some good. He didn't have enough coins to pay Miranda though, but…

He had gotten a free offer from Dimytri Sokolov…

So maybe…

Landon supposed he could go and if he didn't like it, then he could just turn around and leave. It would worth a first try at least, no expectations though.

 ---

"Didn't think I would see you around so soon, Hot-stuff." Dimytri said, looking slightly amused. "Thought I wasn't your type."

Landon shifted, feeling oddly uncomfortable in the plush chair he was currently sitting in. "You said it was free."

Dimytri nodded. "Yeah, only the first time."

Landon swallowed; he really didn't know what it was that he was doing here, it had seemed fine in his head at the beginning but now he wasn't so sure. It had been a long week; Arabella Santizo's case still not solved, as Medical hadn't been very helpful with their insight and Liam had been a total pain in the ass.

"Long day?" Dimytri asked knowingly.

Landon shrugged.

"I hope to help you unwind."

"Are you an AI?" Landon asked curiously. Miranda and all the other boys were AI and he had always felt more at ease around them. AI were more straightforward than humans, not that good at deceit, safer. They had been programed that way; it just was they were better humans in some aspects.

"Human," Dimytri answered sincerely. "That bothers you?"

Landon had never fucked a human, only ever AI. "No, I don't really have a preference."

"You are a terrible liar Mr. Policeman," Dimytri chided, his silver eyes shining with perceptiveness.

Landon frowned but opted to remain silent, waiting.

"Well, shall we procede?" Dimytri said after a while, nodding towards the inside room where there would be a bed waiting for them.

Landon looked around; taking in the details of the little lobby he had been waiting in for Dimytri since he had showed up. Less pretentious than Miranda's lobby at least. "Yeah," he said and after a minute, followed Dimytri inside the inner room.

It was different to what Landon was used to. He had never been with a man of his age, or with a human -and to have someone as muscled and big as himself under him was a new experience altogether. Dimytri didn't feel fragile in Landon's arms, nothing at all like Miranda.

The way Dimytri's thick thighs clung to him, the way their hips moved together in a sensuous rhythm, the way Dimytri's mouth opened in silent pleasure with his grey eyes glazing over; all of it made Landon hazy with unexpected lust. He was burning and Dimytri was right there with him.

It was hot inside him, totally different to the core temperature of an AI, which was always cold. Landon grabbed the meaty thighs, lifting them up and changed his angle, rotating his hips. Dimytri's back bowed in an arch, and his hands scraped on the duvet.

"I want to hear you scream," Landon panted, not knowing really why.

Dimytri smiled wickedly, licking his lips, his chest heaving with the effort. "No man has ever made me scream."

Landon narrowed his eyes and thrust his hips, hard. Dimytri grunted.

"I will have to change that," Landon said, speeding the movement of his hips and the force of his thrusts. He grabbed Dimytri's cock, pumping him in time and making him groan. The headboard rattled and the room filled with the sound of skin slapping against skin, the smell of sweat and sex. It was something primal, raw, and inherently human that Landon hadn't experienced before.

After a particular deep shove Dimytri arched his neck and he leaned down to bit the exposed flesh, feeling how the man tightened around him, closing his eyes, biting his lip almost drawing blood, and arching his back impossibly high… painting Landon's hand with real human seed.

Landon stilled the movement of his hips, and kept massaging the already spent member, with the semen as lubricant. His long fingers relentless over the sensitive organ had Dimytri cursing him out loud as he tried to twist away from his hand but not managing it.

Landon was fascinated to a point with the human under him, high on endorphins, almost drunk. "You haven't screamed for me yet,"

Dimytri did a sound between a strangled laugh and a moan. "Keep dreaming, pretty boy."

"You will," Was all Landon said before pulling completely out of Dimytri's body, bowing to lick him clean from his own spent. Dimytri growled a protest but grew thick in Landon's mouth that sucked him for some minutes but not enough to make him orgasm again. Landon let go of him with an audible pop and straightened again, grabbing Dimytri's hips and flipping him on his stomach.

Landon entered him again, closing his eyes and getting lost on sensation; he stopped caring for his partner's pleasure and just took, burying himself deep in Dimytri's hot flesh, once, twice and again until he was coming, hard. Lights flashing before his eyes. He blinked afterwards and sneaked a hand to help finish Dimytri but noticed the man had already had reached orgasm again, just from the fucking, as both of his hands were still clawed on the sheets.

Landon chuckled -still winded from the exercise- and collapsed alongside Dimytri. It had been good, hell, it had been better than all of his times with Miranda and the other AI's.

“Your rates?”

Dimytri shook his head; his body was still trembling with aftershocks of pleasure. “What?”

Landon rolled, towards him, facing him. “How much is your rate?”

Unfocused grey eyes posed over him for a while, until they cleared completely and Dimytri seemed to finally get what it was that Landon was asking. “Miranda’s bitching was right, you are heartbreaker. You gonna leave him for me?”

“Unless your price is higher,” Landon supposed sincerely. “I couldn’t pay for you then.”

Dimytri smiled at that, this time it was a real smile, not a mocking or cynical one. Landon thought it looked good on him.

“How much did you pay Miranda per visit?” Dimytri examined.

“Four hundred titanium coins, sometimes when he is feeling happy just three hundred,”

Dimytri tilted his head. “Two hundred,”

“That rate stands always? Or you change it with time?”

Dimytri shrugged. “Make me happy and you will always have a discount.”

This time it was Landon’s turn to smile.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to hear from readers! Treasure every comment! 
> 
> Thank you!


	3. Chapter 3

The rain had started again and Landon was still no closer, to solving the murder of the girl behind the trashcan, than he had been a week ago. Arabella Santizo deserved to have justice but the analysts refused to cooperate with this incident. Too poor to pay, a street-girl, a no one, those were some of the reasons the stupid ego-inflated jerks were giving Landon to avoid work. He was frustrated. Medical hadn’t found anything else aside from the fact that it was inconclusive, they didn’t know what had killed her exactly and if it had indeed anything to do with weird glowing green color they had witnessed on her lips, her blood tests had come clean, so that was a dead end as well.

Landon tapped his fingers on the files resting on his desk; he needed to decompress or he would go crazy with restlessness.

In the end he decided the best way to deal with it was to go to the training gym the station held, he would fight someone there and be done for the day; it was late already and he should head home right away if he didn’t want his boss calling him an over-worker.

Mia Rosen was in the training mat when he entered; he had trained with her two times before, but just as Tamara she was a new addition who still hadn’t managed to completely fit inside the station. She held back a lot in her trainings not wanting to hurt anyone, so she wouldn’t be disliked. That attitude would not help her in their line of work though. After a murderer or a robber, defending herself or a friend –if she wasn’t fierce enough she could end up dead.

Landon had told her as much the first time they had sparred together. Still she hadn’t paid much attention to his warnings. The only saving grace was that she had failed the Special Agent test and had opted for being a part of a R&E unit, and the units were always together in the field, at least she would have five people always watching her back.

Landon considered if it would be worth it having a spar with her, but after watching her hold back constantly with her training –he decided he wasn’t in the mood to beat her ass, nag her to get better, see her disappointed gaze and feel like crap afterwards.

Landon turned around; he would go and burn his energy in another training facility; not as clean and regulated as this one, but good all the same.

The illegal circles of underground fighting were an old friend of Landon. Of course he didn’t show his face as often now as he had in his academy years, or the year of Mel’s death. He had been angry then, very angry and underground-fighting had been a good way to deal.

Landon paid his ticket to fight, and his ticket to be allowed in bets; it was only ten titanium coins, and followed one of the organizers inside towards a square box like changing-room, he changed his usual dark jeans for a pair of louse pants, took of black his leather jacket, and left in his place his white-t-shirt. He stuffed his things in his bag pack, alongside his official badge and his gun card.

He would leave his bag in one of the little lockers with eye-scan lock, just before his first fight started –the use of the locker would take two more titanium coins out of his pocket but his things would be safe.

Landon stretched, he was ready to go.

After two fights easily won, Landon started to wonder if coming here had been a good idea after all. He wasn’t feeling any better, and it didn’t look like his night would improve.

Landon scratched the back of his neck, and waited for his next challenger to step up on the ring. It didn’t take long and once ready, he stared baffled at the man facing him.

Landon had seen him only four days ago, but the man had slight differences –two tattoos that hadn’t been there before covered part of his shoulder and chest, an insignia of some kind Landon was sure he had seen before, Army maybe, plus a rosette and a rope; a new piercing on his navel, and one on his right ear.

Dimytri licked his lower lip, playing with the barbell there a few times. “Well, this is a surprise,” he said, craning his neck

“What are you doing here?”

“The same you are, pretty boy.”

Landon paused and looked at him, really looked, in a fighter’s approach; Dimytri was massive, heavy muscled, heavy scarred and with a particular fighting stance, Landon hadn’t seen before. In this context Dimytri couldn’t have seen more at odds with his daily profession at Arabian nights.

“Ready and go!” One of the handlers said, as the crowd around the sphere erupted in a bloodthirsty roar.

Dimytri attacked first with impossible speed, making it almost impossible for Landon to block the first hit. Landon ducked and backed off, intending to find an opening in Dimytri’s defense but to not avail. Dimytri’s second hit came with the same speed and connected spectacularly, Landon gulped air to avoid crashing down thanks to the force of the impact to his stomach.

Dimytri backed off after that and circled around him, studying Landon’s form most likely.

Landon gritted his teeth. He was a Special Agent, trained in active combat, in the New Continental Academy. He crunched down and waited for Dimytri’s next attack, which came just as quickly as the ones before.

Landon managed to block twice and connect a powerful hit to Dimytri’s knees, an incapacitation point –but his opponent didn’t seem to feel it. Dimytri attacked again, faster and harder, landing blows on Landon’s chest, stomach and both knees. He just needed one more attack to have Landon at critical point and they both knew it.

Landon ducked, mimicked a hit to the other knee and went instead for a knock to the face with the heel of his hand. The punch connected, making a kind of cracking noise that made Landon wonder if perhaps he had broken bone.

Dimytri steeped down, moving his jaw slowly, with amusement clear in his eyes. “You are a ferocious one, Pretty face,”

Landon took position again; he was panting from exertion already but refused to give up.

They went at it again, Dimytri landed a blow to his left kidney and another one at his gut, followed by one at the temple that was impossible to avoid. The dizziness came instantly after that, his ears were ringing.

“Give up,” Dimytri alleged evenly. “There’s no way you can keep going like that.”

Landon snarled, and went for another round, he managed to land some punches but in the end ended up on the floor, looking at the flickering lights of the ring’s ceiling. He had lost for the first time in many years.

“And we have a winner!” One of the handlers announced, making the crowd go wild with noise.

Landon snorted; he had expected to win at least four hundred coins out of bets if he was victorious on the fight, to visit Miranda later tonight or maybe tomorrow. It seemed he was out of luck. Although if he had managed two hundred coins from his previous fights, he could buy Dimytri again.

“Let me help you out?” Dimytri asked, extending a hand towards him.

Landon took it and managed to stand.

“It was interesting fighting with you,” Dimytri said strangely humble once out of the ring and walking towards the gambling stands to grab their earned coins. “You resisted almost an hour.”

Landon frowned and looked at him sideways. “Why wouldn’t I? I have official training.”

Dimytri shrugged, looked down at his feet. “Not many have in this place, lasted more than minutes with me, I mean.”

“Yeah?” Landon asked inquisitively. “And how’s that you can fight that way?”

Dimytri collected his money, a huge bag of titanium coins, before answering. “The army,” he said simply.

Landon took his own bag and tilted his head considering what the other man had said. “I had thought so. Your tattoo seems army related.”

Dimytri nodded.

“Then what is that you are doing at Arabian Nights?”

Dimytri’s lip tipped up, not really a smile but something like it. “Not much work for an ex-army after the war,”

Landon hesitated. “You could have gone to the academy; I have a friend who’s ex-army. He is part of an R&E unit nowadays.”

Dimytri a waved a hand, a dismissive-like gesture. “I wouldn’t be a good cop, plus in the Pleasure Palace I don’t do much of the work and it is good money,”

Landon smiled a little. “Yeah, I remember doing all the work four days ago.”

Dimytri just shook his head, his silver eyes sparkling with laughter. “I guess,”

“Hey, wanna go eat?”

Dimytri’s eyebrows reached his hairline. “I made more than you tonight. Are you sure you should be the one inviting me?”

Landon lifted a shoulder nonchalantly. “I was gonna use the money to visit Miranda but there’s no way he would receive me with so little, plus I have a discount with another worker of the pleasure palace,”

Dimytri grinned roguishly. “I did offer you a discount, didn’t I?”

“How come you didn’t have your tats when we fucked?”

“Synthetic skin,”

Landon had supposed as much. “Bad for business, huh?”

“Yeah, not many costumers like a decorated skin,”

“I don’t mind,”

Dimytri grinned again. “Good to know,”

“So about the food?” Landon asked as they reached the eye-scan locker’s room.

“Sure,” Dimytri said easily as he started grabbing his stuff.

\---

Landon groaned, trying to blink sleep away from his eyes –the sun hadn’t raised yet, but his com kept beeping insistently, which meant he had to go work. He shifted and touched a warm body beside him, and that made his mouth twitch in a small smile. Dimytri had let him even stay the night, the other Ai’s he had been with had never given him so much time for so little payment.

Also the fucking had been good, spectacularly good in fact. Dimytri did know what to do with his mouth and his hands, and afterwards hadn’t complained when Landon had rolled him over and started fucking into him with unrestraint, using him roughly, with little care to anything but his own pleasure.

Landon was sad his time was up; he had hoped to wake Dimytri in a more pleasing way but work called. He got up, started picking his clothes and got ready or dressed enough to pick his hologram-communication just inside Dimytri’s little bathroom.

“Yes?”

The smiling face of his oldest friend appeared on the screen. Joey Whitmoore was something like family to him. “Harrison! It’s been a long time!”

Landon grinned broadly at him. “It’s good to see you Whitmoore!”

Something troubled passed through Joey’s eyes then, enough to dampen his smile. He looked down and sighed. “Not a Whitmoore anymore,”

Landon hesitated. “You okay?”

Joey shrugged. “It wasn’t my fault he stopped loving me, or well, I tell myself that every day,”

Landon didn’t know what to say to that; he had never had a relationship, and knew nothing about weddings or divorces –but Joey was his friend. “Can I do something for you?”

Joey snorted. “Yeah, let me drink in your place one of these days. I heard Killian is dating, if you can call that dating, a boy ten eleven years younger than us. Mid-life crisis, I guess,”

Landon winced in sympathy. “We can drink any day you wish,”

“We are signing the divorce papers this week, so I may take your offer seriously,” Joey told him half wanting to cry or laugh it away. “Anyway, I didn’t called just for that,”

Landon had supposed as much. He nodded.

“There’s been a murder in Upstate Arkadia,” Joey paused, his professional persona easily on. “She had a strange glowing green on her lips and eyes. Liam told me to contact you, he says it’s your case but we got here earlier, so what do you plan to do?”

Upstate Arkadia was district’s four neighborhood name for ‘only wealthy people’, this case would be a scandal. Julia would had an aneurism if it wasn’t handled carefully, plus it was obviously connected with Landon’s deceased hooker.

Landon chewed on his lower lip. “Hold the crime-scene until I get there,”

Joey nodded and the holo-screen went black.

Landon took a quick shower, finished getting ready and collected his stuff back; he hoped to make some progress with this new case. He left Dimytri’s room with one last look at the sleeping man, he would be back soon, or at least he hoped so.

He was just about the leave Arabian Nights when Miranda called hurriedly after him; the AI was drinking a healthy juice from a popular place (that was always open), Tamara liked to visit, Spencer’s or something like that.

He offered some of his juice to Landon batting his eye-lashes prettily. “Next time you come, it will be to visit me, yes?”

Landon took a sip of the offered juice -it tasted like crap- and gave it back. “I don’t know if I will be able to afford you.”

Miranda sipped some more. “I may even copy Dimytri and offer you a free sample.”

“You love coins too much to do that.”

Miranda smiled faintly. “AI’s can’t really feel love or any other emotion as you know.”

“But you like shiny things,”

“That’s true,” Miranda finished his drink and sighed. “Want me to open the doors for you?”

Landon smiled maliciously, tilting his head. “So helpful!”

Miranda snorted. “You just keep breaking my heart, don’t you?”

“Maybe next time,” Landon offered sincerely.

“Maybe,” Miranda whispered, standing on his tip-toes to kiss Landon’s cheek. His lips were cold, a total contrast to Dimytri’s.

Landon waved goodbye and stepped outside the Pleasure Palace; he needed to talk to Joey, he had a lot of work to do.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! See you next week!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating R for this chapter.

“Maya Bell, thirty-five, un-married but had a boyfriend, and she was loaded of course.” Joey told him once he arrived to the location of the murder. “Leila can’t really say for sure but she estimates Maya has been dead for a week,”

Special Agent Joey Martin and his work-partner Special Agent Leila Wright, informed Landon about all they had managed to dig in the time he had taken to arrive. Maya bell was dressed in a fancy cocktail dress, high heels and a champagne hand-bag with an invitation inside it for a trendy party inside one new club. She was sprawled on her carpet, with weird glowing green lips and open unseeing glowing-green eyes. There was blood on her thighs, and clues of sexual assault.

“Could it be a Serial?” Leila asked him thoughtfully.

Landon blenched at that very serious probability. It would be a shit show, if it was indeed a serial-killer case. Julia wasn’t around to handle the press and no one in the station had any tact to deal with the media.

“I hope not,”

“But you don’t discard it?” Joey followed his thoughts quickly. “The time-frame of the murders is too close, so it can’t be a coincidence,”

“Maybe it is,” Landon said, hoping against hope.

Joey grunted. “You are not that naïve Lan,”

“I guess not,”

Leila patted his arm reassuringly as she moved to keep roaming the department. “We will help you with anything you need,”

“Thanks,” Landon said, resignation shining in his eyes. “Do we know who the boyfriend was?”

Joey hummed. “Not yet, her com is locked, as is her note-tablet. She was a very private person or she had something to hide.”

"Or both,"

Landon closed his eyes, massaging the bridge of his nose. He had already the beginning of a head-ache and he was barely starting the day. "Do we need to notify the family?"

Joey cleared his throat. "I can do that for you,"

"Thank you," Landon said. He hated telling family their loved ones had been killed. "I keep forgetting you know me best. What do you say about vodka for tonight?"

Joey made a face. "I am not helping you because of vodka."

"I know," Landon made sure to look him in the eye. "But you need it and I am there for you."

"Boys," Leila called from the victim's bedroom. "I think we have a lead on the boyfriend,"

Well… the day had gotten more interesting. It seemed.

Maya Bell’s bedroom looked every bit the decadent luxury box someone from upstate Arkadia would own. Her bed had four posters, and the room held a plush carpet that was probably four times Landon’s salary together. There was a vanity with triple mirror and all kinds of pricey make up, and polished jewelry.

Landon stayed a moment in front of the vanity, and looked at Maya’s belongings with analytical detachment. He needed to find something that didn’t match inside the straight perfection that was the room, a little mistake.

“I have a moving digital picture,” Leila stated triumphantly behind him. “It was on her nightstand.”

Landon nodded and was ready to turn around and start talking about the mysterious boyfriend, when something cached his attention. Almost unnoticeable if you weren’t really looking –behind some little trinkets there were a carefully assorted selection of earrings. Colorful pebbles in intricate forms, all of them in pairs, all but one.

Landon grabbed the red stone that stood alone between all the pairs and handed him to Leila. “It needs to go in evidence,”

His fried frowned. “Why?”

Landon shrugged. “A wild guess,”

Leila shook her head, an incredulous small smile on her lips. “Is this like a Profiler thing?”

Landon smiled back. “I don’t have a clue. How many Profilers do you know?”

Leila chewed her lower lip. “Just someone else aside from you… She is amazing, actually.”

“Yeah?”

Leila sighed, racking her fingers through her head. “It’s um, complicated, we are in early stages. She teaches at the academy.”

“I am sure she cares about you, and yes we Profilers are amazing so don't let her go."

Leila rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. “Thank you.”

 

\---

 

Charles Stone. That was the name of the man that was in Maya’s photo. A handsome older man, a senator, political influential figure, married with Sarah Phillips –old money- with no children and a taste for younger women. Charles Stone was Maya’s boyfriend and also a regular client of Arabian Nights. It seemed remarkably perfect and yet to Landon it seemed something was not quite right.

“His secretary says he is too busy to concede a hearing,” Tamara told him sourly.

Landon nodded. He had supposed as much… Charles Stone wouldn’t make their job easier. It was late already, it would be better if they went tomorrow morning at Stone’s offices.  

 

\---

 

“It’s awful,” Joey said as he took a drink of his beer. “My entire not work related friends, our friends, are taking sides. My sister wants to kill him.”

“And you?” Landon asked, as he finished making a salad to go with their meat. They were in his apartment trying to chat about his friend’s divorce, and what it was Joey was going to do afterwards.

Joey grabbed a chair and sat, waiting at the table. “What? Want to kill him?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Landon finished seasoning their dinner and took it the table. “Do you want to?”

Joey shrugged. “I don’t know how to feel about him anymore.”

Landon pointed at the dressing for the salad. “Can you pass me that?”

Joey did and they started eating after that, a comfortable silence between them. It had been a long day but they had made some progress on Maya Bell’s case. At the very least they already knew who the boyfriend was, now they just had to go and grab an interview –which seemed a tad impossible given the man’s profession.

“Killian seemed fine the last time I saw him,” Landon said with a little frown. “Was it about his work?”

Joey snorted but with little humor in his eyes. “Yeah, if you can call it that, _he_ is doing one of his students so it did have to do with his work.”

Landon winced. “I am sorry,”

“No, it’s… I knew something was wrong since the beginning.”

“Wanna talk the case?” Landon asked with kindness finishing the last remains of his dinner.

Joey sighed. “I should have slept with you when we first met,”

Yeah… that hadn’t been Landon’s best moment; they had met some moths after Mel’s death and he had been fucking anything AI that moved back then. Fucking, fighting, drinking… it had been his life. It had been the only way to survive the fucking static noise in his head, the leftover of the bound.

“You weren’t an AI and you were married,”

“You didn’t care about neither,”

Landon swallowed thickly. “I am glad you didn’t, we wouldn’t be friends now if you had. You know how I don’t like complications in that regard,”

“Landon,” Joey said pushing away his half eaten plate. His eyes were red and glassy and Landon didn’t know what to do about that. “You have always been breathtaking but even then I didn’t want you, I didn’t want anyone else but him. I still want him and I hate myself for that.”

Landon sighed, got up and walked towards his liquor-cupboard. He brought back two glassed and a bottle of vodka.

“I don’t need a glass; I will drink it straight out of the bottle.” Joey told him.

“Okay,”

“You aren’t going to nag me to stop drinking? I know you have heard the rumors of me showing up drunk to work. Leila has been talking to make me go rehab.”

“I know how it feels, to lose a piece of yourself,” Landon handed him the bottle. “I won’t tell you not to drink. Drinking… sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s your choice when to stop not mine.”

“Thank you,”

“Anytime.”

 

\---

 

There had to be some kind of virus involved -or maybe he was under too much stress or something because the truth was Landon had never experienced this kind of attraction, this level of intensity, a burning that left in his path only need, always need for more. Dimytri was currently panting on the bed, on his back, with his whole body nude and being totally shameless about it.

After Joey had gone home Landon had come here. They had had sex and now he wanted to wreck Dimytri. Again.

"Wanna wait for round two?" Dimytri asked him slyly, patting the spot in the bed next to him. "We can talk while you recover,"

Landon rolled his eyes, put back his boxers on, but climbed the bed anyway.

Dimytri smirked. "Don't want me to see you naked?"

Landon trailed a finger on one of the tattoos painted in Dimytri's fair skin. "You just like to show off, that's why you don't care about nudity."

Dimytri's hand went up to grab his. He played with the barbell on his lower lip, looking him straight in the eye, knowing fully well what that did to Landon's self-control. "You don't like me nude?"

"I like you nude too fucking much, and that's a problem,"

Slightly amused silver eyes turned towards him. "It's not a problem."

"It is," Landon said distracted by the colorful ink on Dimytri's chest, by the scars covering all of his body. They never did slow, their fucking wasn't that kind of thing -it was the opposite in fact, it was just hard and fast and dirty, but sometimes Landon wondered what it would feel like to lick every little scar on Dimytri’s body with enough time to spare.

“How was your life in the army?” Landon asked after a moment.

Dimytri tilted his head, a half cynical smile on his lips. “Fucking wonderful,”

Landon punched him softly on the arm. “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,”

“No, I don’t,”

Landon sighed. This road, this easy familiarity, talking and just being together… it was a dangerous thing. “I started in the academy at sixteen, finished by twenty, got my partner killed one year after we graduated,” he paused. “Couldn’t try Army for political reasons, my sister was an activist. She ended up dead after everything, so I don’t think it was that worth it. I have no more family alive left. I dislike the red color and hate sweets.”

Dimytri just looked at him, but didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t have to tell you all that but I wanted to, I guess.”

“My life, it wasn’t that exiting,” Dimytri told him somberly. “In war you do things you rather not, and then try to forget you did them anyway.”

“So that’s a wrong topic of conversation, huh?”

“Wanna know me better Baby-cheeks? Maybe take me to dance?”

Landon snorted. “As if you would ever say yes to any of that,”

“You would be surprised,”

“Favorite color?” It couldn’t hurt to ask little details, could it?

“Green,” Dimytri told him effortlessly.

“Favorite kind of music?”

“Electronic beat.”

“City or country?”

Dimitry half smiled at that one, something unexpectedly sweet. “One day I would own a bio farm, where I’ll end up my days in retired bliss.”

"Want some company in farmland?"

Dimytri chuckled. "Why? You offering?"

Landon shrugged. "Yeah, why not? We will be old and uninteresting by then. Also, I may not have anything else to do."

"You can come work in my future farm anytime then,"

Landon licked his lips. "I have been told I am good with my hands,"

Dimytri's eyes shone with amusement. "You are, in fact I think you should use them right now,"

Landon felt his throat dry at the display: Dimytri's fingers caressing his own skin, his own length, roughly -hips undulating in a pretty good imitation of fucking, heavy thighs splayed apart shining with sweat.

"Want to help Angel-eyes?"

It was over awfully quick to Landon's dismay, but it was incredibly worth it. Once he finished inside Dimytri, again, he had to pull out and roll over to a more comfortable position. His heart was still beating fast and he was still trying to catch his breath when he felt Dimytri move.

"You don't really think that's enough, do you?" Dimytri asked breathless, shifting around and climbing on his lap. It was different than when Miranda or some other AI did the same. Dimytri wasn't feather light, and his whole body didn't left any room for imagination of little skin and delicate bones, he had a fighter's body; muscled, strong, perfectly healthy.

"No," Landon told him sincerely. "It wasn't nearly enough,"

"Someday," Dimytri told him, scratching his nails along Landon's chest and rolling his hips in a slow rhythm, up and down. "I am going to fuck you so hard you will forget your name,"

Landon grunted as a response, feeling the slow glide of skin against skin. His cock was starting to fill up once more while Dimytri was already hard, leaking over his belly.

"It's gonna be so good, you are going to be fucking tight," Dimytri groaned, as Landon started moving under him. They could come just like this; there was enough pleasure in the friction between them, in the warmth of a body touching another body in an intense dance.

“But while we get there, wanna inside me again?” Dimytri asked with dilated pupils.

“Yeah,”

“What are you waiting then? An invitation?”

Landon half-smiled but shook his head. “You are insatiable,”

Dimytri shrugged, rolled his hips again. “You like it too,”

And wasn’t that a problem?

Landon grabbed the other man’s hips, stilled him –and then flipped their positions. Dimytri arched his back as Landon breached him once again; this time he didn’t use any kind of lube to ease the way but Dimytri was still slick from the two previous times. It was a deep shove, and he could see he had hit jackpot as Dimytri opened his glazed eyes and groaned a curse, starting to move franticly with Landon’s tempo.

It was a mistake but buried in that scorching heat, Landon couldn’t help himself; he fucked the other man harder, and leaned down to capture Dimytri’s lips. The kiss was rough and they battled for dominance, but ended up with Landon fucking his tongue in the other’s mouth in a pretty good mimic of what their bodies were doing.

It couldn’t last.

And after some minutes, they both reached orgasm again. Landon ended up winded, collapsing over his lover, but Dimytri didn’t protest to his muscled weight.

“Wanna go outside? Maybe a holo-movie?” Landon asked when his heart-rate had gone back to normal.

Dimytri hummed, as he massaged Landon’s sides with restless fingers. “When?”

“Right now?”

Dimytri’s smile wasn’t particularly unkind. “I have been with you two hours,” he tilted his head, something like regret shining in his eyes. “I have another set of clients tonight.”

Landon swallowed away his disappointment. “Some other time?”

Dimytri nodded.

\---

As Landon cleaned himself and dressed, he could hear Dimytri already talking with his following clients in the lobby. They were a couple, a man and a woman, regulars Dimytri had said, good friends.

Already cleaned and dressed, he took two hundred of titanium coins out of his pocket and left them in Dimytri’s nightstand. Sometimes Dimytri asked for fifty coins, sometimes forty, and one particular day he only took ten coins out of Landon’s money –but today Dimytri hadn’t asked for an amount, so Landon left what he considered to be the whole fee. It had been so very worth it anyway, so he did it just as an afterthought.

As he stepped out of the room, he noticed the couple sitting on the old lobby-sofa had been the same to provide an alibi for Dimytri regarding the night of Arabella’s murder. They were young, mid-twenties maybe. She had a heart shaped face and big innocent eyes, a face full of freckles and hair coppery red. The man was handsome in a some of sort old-fashioned way although he wasn’t remarkable, brown hair, brown eyes, brown clothes. They both nodded at Landon hello. He nodded back and walked out of Dimytri’s room and some minutes later out of Arabian Night. It was cold outside.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I am behind and I having been posting when I said... but have a relative in the hospital. RL is complicated for me right now.


End file.
